Friday, September 6, 2013

I taught the Prez Week 32?

I am probably the best missionary there ever was. and the most humble.just kidding. real talk this week was really good!! Sister Hymas and I are getting in our groove. She is starting to really love the East Coast, the people here, and missionary life. It has been fun training and seeing that "greenie fire." I have gained such a strong testimony of fundamentals. Whether as a missionary or as pro basketball player, it is so important to focus on the fundamentals. I have been a missionary for 7 1/2 ish months... crazy. but going through the fundamentals again have helped me out so so much. It is amazing how even though all i do every single day is be a missionary, after 7 1/2 months i am still learning so much every single day. I never get bored of teaching people the gospel. It is different every single time! I never get sick of studying. CRAZY huh??? if I heard myself saying that a year ago i would have never believed it. but i seriously look forward to reading the holy word of God every morning. it is the best start to a long day of walking, teaching, crying (just kidding), and baring testimony. We are still working hard to get Robert ready to be baptized on the 15 of September. He is still working on quitting smoking. seriously everybody and there dog has issues with smoking.Andrew and Patrick passed the sacrament on Sunday. i felt like a mother. i was so worried and nervous and excited for them both! I was watching them like a hawk the whole time with the cheesiest smile plastered on my face. There is nothing more joyous than seeing people progress in the gospel and magnify their priesthood!! the Farrenkopfs are planning a temple trip the end of this month to do baptisms! ahhhhhh

We had the chance to work with some awesome less actives this week, and today we had a really amazing lesson with Jesse. I don't remember if i had told y'all about her when we first got here. She and her husband were baptized almost a year ago, and she fell away very quickly after. she went down the wrong path and we don't know all the details but she was super lost. hah so anyways today we finally got to teach her! She expressed to us hat she wants to get re baptized now that she is in the "right mindset." She was very adamant about that. We kindly told her that this is not how the gospel works. We need to repent, and when we worthily partake of the sacrament we can be cleansed of our mistakes every week. She was really confrontational about it but the spirit took over and i don't even remember what we both said, but I literally saw her eyes open up and the spirit just hit her. She stopped "Arguing" and she told us about a really spiritual experience she had last night while she was praying. She told us she was praying all night last night and she realized she needs to start coming back to church. that she has made mistakes but she finally feels ready and worthy enough to come back to church. It was so cool to see the total change in demeanor with her. I love what the spirit can do to people :)We are still teaching Patrick's friend kyle. He is seriously like so many guys from LCC it freaks me out. To be honest Sister Hymas and I were not very enthusiastic about teaching him, but when we met with him this week he kept the commitments we invited him to keep and he was super into it! We will see what happens!I took Sister Hymas tracting for the first time last week, and one of the people who answered the door was a shirtless old man who apparently was deaf. He told us to come in and talk to his wife. he leads us into his room and we spoke to a morbidly obese woman about the restored gospel. We bore our hearts out to them and in response she asked if we were married. when we said no she asked if we had boyfriends. we quickly left the house hahah then we met a man mowing his lawn and as we were talking to him he asked if we were married. We must have been looking fly that day. We get the weirdest comments and questions, i love it.On Friday we had district meeting. I had been asked to give a training on revelation through prayer. I was super excited about it because this was a topic I had been doing a lot of reflecting on. As a missionary we pray ALLLL the time. when we wake up, when we eat, when we start personal study, when we start and end companionship study, when we leave our apt when we start a lesson and end a lesson when we get out of our car when we get ready to go on a long drive, when we eat with members, to start and end all meetings, its a lot .I felt strongly this week that i was really getting into a prayer funk. I was becoming repetitious, and my prayers were as much of a spiritual experience as i would like. I think we all have had times in our lives like this. So anyways, Friday morning we get a call from the district meeting saying that President Baker was going to be at district meeting. WHAT. i started freaking out. But all went very well and i think i survived it. Not only did i have to give a training while the mission president was there, but we got put into groups to practice teaching and Sister Hymas and I had to teach president and sister baker. it was the highlight of my week for sure, to be able to teach with the mission president there and to feel his spirit and love for the gospel and missionary work.I have been reading in the war chapters of Alma, and i wanted to give my momma a shout out! Mom, thank you for raising us in such a loving environment and for always being such a steadfast example of the gospel to me and Chan and Summ. any qualities that i have that are good, i know that they are because of my beautiful mother and my pretty father who have dedicated their lives to raising us. Thank you for not being alcoholics and strippers. literally i have seen far to many families like this and I have never realized how blessed I am to have been brought up in a home surrounded on standards, love, and Christ.Hope everybody had a wonderful labor day! If you didn't catch on by now, the library was closed yesterday :)I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I am so grateful to be serving as a missionary!!!!I KNOW that Joseph Smith saw what he saw. I know that God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and it contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel.i love my family and friends. you guys are my rock. You keep me extra motivated and i am doing my best to make you proud!Chandler, congrats on your ticket. how embarrassing... you are officially as good of a driver as me. wooooooo fake.Have an amazing week!!xoxoxoxoxoSister Snowwww